Corruption Currents: From Veto Threats to Turkey’s Inside Man

Wall Street Journal

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Bribery:

Mike Lucas

Riza Sarraf, a 30-year-old Iranian emigre to Turkey, is reportedly at the heart of a ring of bribery, forgery and gold-smuggling that led to a political scandal rocking the country, and helped lead to hundreds of arrests in Turkey and the resignations of three cabinet ministers. His lawyer denied the allegations, saying she looks forward to proving her client’s innocence. (Bloomberg)

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledged to widen an investigation into corruption at the unions in the building industry following a massive bribery scandal. Queensland isn’t immune. The allegations play into the government’s hands, columnistssay. (Sydney Morning Herald, AAP, Brisbane Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age)

The latest on the phone hacking and bribery trial of former News Corp. executives is here. News Corp publishes this page. (BBC)

Russia provides safe haven for an alleged mobster accused of bribing judges at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. He denied any wrongdoing in an interview. (ABC News)

Transparency International called for OECD countries to enforce the anti-bribery convention they signed.

Sri Lanka’s opposition party criticized delays in investigating the head of the nation’s anti-bribery commission. (Colombo Page)

The U.S. arrested a bribery and money-laundering suspect wanted by Hong Kong. (press release)

The former mayor of Sweetwater, Fla. was sentenced to 40 months in prison for taking bribes. (Miami Herald)

The FCPA Blog spots truckloads of items seized from a Chinese official and forecasts SEC enforcement in 2014. Tom Fox analyzes the ADM settlement. The FCPAProfessor re-assesses the tenure of a recently departed Justice Department official. James McGrath saysNCR Corp. should be worried. The FCPAmericas blog shares notes from a conference.

Cybercrime:

Prosecutors charged two men with operating a business that illegally obtained email passwords for customers who hoped to catch cheating spouses. Attorneys for the men didn’t respond to requests for comment. (Mother Jones)

The company behind Angry Birds announced it will “re-evaluate” its relationship with advertising networks following revelations U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies tapped the app to mine for personal data. (Guardian)

President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to threaten a vetoagainst any new sanctionson Iran. He defended the overtures toward Tehran, noting that talks won’t be easy. Lawmakers continued to back away from new sanctions in the wake of the veto threat, but one called Mr. Obama’s remarks “dangerous.” The fate of the bill is in the hands of Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.). (BuzzFeed, Politico, Reuters, AP, Wall Street Journal, Thinkprogress, Politico, Roll Call)

Iran wants to use Japanese, South Korean and Swiss banks to handle international trade exempted from Western sanctions under the interim nuclear deal. Investors are baffled by a decline in Tehran’s stock exchange following the deal’s implementation. A vessel insurance group said coverage for tankers to export Iranian crude may be unusable even after the deal. (AFP, Al Monitor, Bloomberg)

For many financial services firms, work remains to operationalize the governance structures they have adopted. Further, expectations regarding governance have shifted: Stakeholders now see boards as more accountable for the effectiveness of their overall governance process. This shift is real, and it is significant. It will likely amount to an expectation of greater board involvement in the means by which governance is effected, and for more active oversight by the board and its committees.

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